I had a wicked awesome day

Okay friends, when was the last journal entry I gave you which wasn't chock full of me fretting about the freaking house? It's been a while. And I'm here to proudly proclaim, this entry will have no house bemoaning. Are you ready? Let's go.

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I woke up in a good mood, with no neighbornoise© bothering the hell out of me. For the first time in weeks.

Geoff did his homework before I was even up, so the Gordon Show was awesome because we didn't have to rush the homework part.

I had forgotten to pull the mail yesterday afternoon, so I went and grabbed it and found a certain wedding invitation (squeeee!) and a box from Amazon of two books that I bought (one by Teller, one by Penn Jillette) and I'm irritated that I'm not done reading the book that I'm currently reading so I can dive into some Sock. But I got over that quickly knowing I'd have something to look forward to in a day or so.

Traffic was horrible on the way to work but I cranked the BNL and enjoyed myself greatly. I drove really fast, and didn't see a single cop on I-95.

I had a lot of coffee. Yay.

When I got to work Gretchen gave me this awesome little burger king kid's meal toy from Cartoon Network's Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends.

I could do a whole big thing on this guy and a recent episode I saw, but I'll save that for my next entry.

Suffice to say, Bloo Rules.

Then, I got everything done that I set out to get done before 2pm. I was expecting a phone call from a fellow flickr user, Rick Harris.

He is in Boston for a conference, visiting all the way from Canada. So I figured I'd invite him up to Marblehead and hang out with him for a while, and then give him a ride back to the train station.

Better yet -- there's a bus that goes from Marblehead to Wonderland and to Haymarket, so I gave him a bus schedule. I picked him up at about 3pm, and we toodled around the area. We toured Marblehead Neck and I showed him the ostentatiously crazy big houses out there. We spent some time shooting pictures at Candler Hovey and talking about BNL. We had some coffee and I ditched him so right now it is my solemn prayer that he's alive and well and back at his hotel and not stranded somewhere floundering because he's lost.

Boy, would I feel guilty as hell.

Especially after having such a really nice visit with him. That would suck so bad.

So heavy duty mojo to Rick to get home okay.

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I went back to the office and did a bunch more stuff. I felt really awesome and psyched and cleaned up and headed home happy.

It took me only 40 minutes to get home, which is so unheard of I thought I ought to share that. It is usually like an hour. Man alive, that was awesome.

Then, tonight we went over and met with the guy who is selling us the house. He has a bunch of furniture that he wanted to sell us, so we bought 4 book cases, a dining table and six chairs, a couch and chair and ottoman set, two double bed mattress/box spring combinations... we cleaned up.

And he threw in two silver candle sticks for good measure.

It's a lot of money, but it is a lot less than if we buy everything NEW... and it's already IN the house. So we don't have to move it, schlep it, struggle with it, or otherwise have a rough go of it.

Before we went over, Doug ran up the corner and bought a bottle of wine, which we shared and toasted and chatted and had fun over. Geoff fantasized all about what his daily life is going to be like in the house. He ran through his day from pretending to get out of bed in the morning, to eating breakfast to running through the entire rest of his day to dinner and to bed. It so entertained the seller of the house (I'll call him TD) and he laughed and laughed, and was so pleased with Geoff's excitement and enthusiasm.

I'm home now, and Earl is on, so I oughta go watch my favorite TV show. Followed by my other favorite TV show. I just wanted to say that overall, it was a helluva day.

If yours was 1/2 as fun as mine, you had a great day too. And I truly hope you did.

Receptioning

We're past the age where our friends get married. Back in our mid-twenties, we went to a wedding a month there for quite a while. Lately, there has been a dearth of weddingage, and more of a series of phone calls outlining who is separating from whom, and what marriages are falling on hard times.

So this and next weekend are odd-ducks in our calendar of life.

My cousin John got married in Japan last year. He'd been there teaching for a long time and found a nice young lady to marry. God bless her for being that gal. John wanted a reception when they came back to the USA to live, which they have, so today is the day.

It'll be nice to see extended family. Most of which I haven't seen since my Auntie died in February of last year. We're not a very close family. Kind of like Episcopalians and church, we seem to "hatch, match, and dispatch" for our gettings together, and not a lot of other stuff in between.

Longtime readers know Mr. N (Steve) was married to my girl C for a long long time (Hi, C... I know you're checking in from the trade show or from your landing back here). A very long time ago in (a)musings history (2001 to be exact) I wrote a little bit about some of my thoughts and feelings around what happened with them and what happens in general when friends split up.

Mr. N has remarried, to someone I'm friends with from another circle (I'm telling you -- my life is a huge series of six degrees of separation) and so they're having their reception next Sunday. They got married in November, and they're really cute and happy. So I'm looking forward to raising a toast to them. Here's to second chances friend.

Now C... you've got the ring, when can I toast you? Either privately or in a big shindig. Let me know, wouldya.

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The only one left to marry off is my little sister.

I'm sure people will be up in her grill at the party today, family tends to get like that more than friends who seem to stand back and let you live your life.

She's got the fiancé, she's got the ring, she's got the house... and I'm sure she'll need a stiff drink by about 12:34 (the party starts at 12:30).

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Jess and I had nothing to wear today between the two of us. So we had to go shopping. We went out specifically to grab something nice for her to wear. If it isn't a BNL hoodie, ripped jeans and flip-flops, it is too dressy for her. So she owns nothing.

Sad thing is, she picked what I would have picked for me if I had been shopping for me, so I came home without a bonus back up outfit.

I have a whole ton of clothing that doesn't go together or match or look decent on me. But I figured I had at least two things I could wear.

Back when we got our bedroom set, I threw a ton of clothing into a box, and figured "I'll just grab that pink blouse and the floral capris that go with them." So I didn't shop for me. The pink blouse is there, the floral capris are not. I wonder if I didn't accidentally chuck them into a bag for goodwill. Gah.

I've noticed that at clothing stores no one is selling dresses anymore. A couple of weeks ago when we were hunting for the dress for Jess' play, we went to elevendy different stores and not a single dress was to be found. Kind of mysterious. I'm not a big dress person, but it was just kind of bizarre that black cocktail dresses weren't available for sale at places like Kohl's and JC Penney.

So I managed to scrape some things together that look somewhat decent. I hate putting on nice clothing. If it isn't a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans with my Columbia sportswear clogs, it's too dressy for me.

Anyway -- gotta finish wrangling the boy into his dress shirt and clip-on tie. More later.

The Gordon Show

This is a little something that Geoff does daily, every day between 8 and 8:10 am.

Usually right before we leave for the bus he gets the pig out of the cage and sings a theme song, talks about special guests and interviews celebrities. That Gordon, he's always having the hippest celebrities on his show. The best part is the theme song. The Gordon Show is running a little long today... it's actually 8:30 and I really need to leave to go to work but shot this one this morning and thought I'd upload it for you all. Especially Amy. Now I'm off to work. Whee!

The Gordon Show

Welcome to the Gordon Show.

This is a little something that Geoff does daily, every day between 8 and 8:10 am.

Usually right before we leave for the bus he gets the pig out of the cage and sings a theme song, talks about special guests and interviews celebrities. That Gordon, he's always having the hippest celebrities on his show. The best part is the theme song. The Gordon Show is running a little long today... it's actually 8:30 and I really need to leave to go to work but shot this one this morning and thought I'd upload it for you all. Especially Amy. So click on the picture to watch the movie, in QuickTime (download it for free at Apple.com or something).

Now I'm off to work. Whee!

Bank Check

Good morning, and welcome to your Thursday. It is 7:30 am, Doug just left for work, and I am heading into work late because I have to go buy a cashiers check to go with the signed Purchase & Sale agreement that we inked on Monday.

I've never ever bought a cashiers check for the amount of cash I'll be buying today. Doug and I have been scrimping and saving and putting every red cent aside due to this process and the fact we owed a ton on taxes. I could buy a car with the money I'm going in to take out today. And not some POS thousand dollar car either. A real car, with bells and whistles and all kinds of features.

It will literally drain us down to the barebones of the account and it makes me dizzy just thinking about it.

So because of all this, I've been a little bit distracted. Here is the update for the past few days.

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Saturday we continued to clean the basement. All that is left is stuff we can burn. And a boat. Some serious progress was made, and I'm proud of our achievement. We have a huge basement. It's awesome. I almost wish we were staying and we could do something with this space, but... my new basement is cool too, and I will have four bedrooms and a guest room. That's a lot of space. I keep telling myself that it's okay to move from here, and we'll be happy happy happy. Yes we will.

After a morning of cleaning and burning and having fun, we dyed Easter Eggs. There are still two dozen eggs in my fridge. Someone better eat them. I sure as hell won't.

We had a great time, and Geoff totally enjoyed the white crayon and the writing on the eggs trick that daddy taught him.

Here he is with Doug's smiley face egg. He ate it immediately after we were done. I think Doug was disappointed and wanted the egg to stick around a few minutes... so I grabbed this shot.

I think dying eggs is a lot of fun. We do it more than once a year. I think in the fall it is a good rainy day activity... and the kids dig it. So I highly recommend it if you're looking for something different to do with kids in the winter time.

Sunday was Easter. We skipped church because we haven't been in quite a while and EVERYone shows up on Easter, so we thought we'd save going for another Sunday. Instead, we sat around the house and answered all Geoff's questions about the Triune God and why Good Friday is called Good Friday when very bad things happened that day to Jesus and it wasn't really a good day for him at all.

We then went Geocaching. What better way to enjoy the risen Lord than to get out and move your body and enjoy His creation, I say.

We went to the Boxford Town Forest, not too far away, where a new geocache had been placed (funny note, we were doing one of RexRider98's caches, and he was doing two of ours at the same time. Heh.). On the way we were assaulted by a turkey in the middle of the road.

Of course, I got pictures. Dude was trying to peck our tires. When Doug beeped the horn, we'd hoped he'd get scared off but it just made him yell gobble gobble. A car tried to pass us, and almost ran him over... and then the turkey attacked that car, so we made a clean get away to about 150 feet ahead and stopped the truck, got out, and watched the turkey kick ass on that guy's car. It was very funny.

I took a lot of pictures of trees and bark and sky and stuff. It was about a 2 mile hike round trip, and then our GPS started flaking out and stopped working all together, so that cut our trip short.

Monday we signed the P&S and I had an instantaneous panic attack about writing a check for 20 Thousand Dollars to hold the place until today's Banker's Check (see above) and didn't sleep well that night. I was worried about tax implications and the like because I didn't intend on putting a downpayment of this size on the house now -- I wanted to keep my savings and use the proceeds from the sale of this house as the down payment on closing day.

But no one explained to me that I was expected to put 5% down with the P&S. And in theory, I didn't HAVE to, I could have said "Yeah, I'm putting down 2% and financing the rest after the proceeds of the sale.

So I get my money back in my account after we sell this house, but it isn't the way I wanted to do it.

I've never sold a house and bought a house at the same time, and my buyer's broker is on vacation... and the woman filling in for him is a little, shall we say, stupid. My broker tells me when to blow my nose and wipe my back end. This one didn't even tell me I was supposed to bring money to the P&S, never sent me a draft copy of the P&S to review, and on Monday when the banks were closed for stupid patriot's day, I asked her when she was going to let me know I was supposed to come with a bank check, and how she proposed I was going to receive one.

I'm not letting my buyer's broker go on vacation ever again. I need hand holding sometimes. And she wasn't giving it. So I was pissed and panicky and ... yikes.

Tuesday during the day my kids went to a birthday party. One of Geoff's cub scout den-mates turned 9 and so his mom had a surprise party for him at a mini-golf/batting cages/driving range/ice cream place. Jess went and filled in for me because I had to get my teeth cleaned and I didn't want to leave Geoff alone with a huge crowd. I know and trust the mom hosting the party, but didn't want to have to burden her with him if he got distracted, bored or upset. So Jess did a good job while I got my teeth taken care of. And she got ice cream so she was very happy.

Geoff got a hole in 1 on the final hole, which got him a free game card. And then he went to the batting cages and took a shot right to the arm. He was so pissed and angry -- not because he was hurt but because some of the kids laughed. He's never BEEN to a batting cage, so he didn't stand in the right spot and didn't know what to do. I'm glad Jess was there for him and I'm glad I briefed the mom on what to expect with batting cages. He's got a bruised arm and ego, but he'll live.

Tuesday night we took the kids down to my parents' and had dinner out with them. It was very nice. We were home and asleep by 10:30.

Last night Doug and I went out to dinner, something we don't get to do too often by ourselves, and went looking at a new vehicle. For months now, Doug has wanted to replace the truck with something that gets better mileage. He wants a Toyota Rav4... So we stopped at a dealership and looked around the lot. They had two in stock, and both were only 4 cylinders, so he doesn't want those. He wants six. We had fun looking and were home asleep by 9:30. I was incredibly tired. Yesterday work was busy and again I thank God for Amy because she's coming in to help today (love bomb, baby) as we gear up to our most important advertising cycle ever at work. Very stressy. Everything has to be 100% right. And I'm terrified it will not.

So Amy will preview while I check and triple check my work.

Tonight Doug is going to get the kids. I will work until I'm 100% done scheduling and satisfied with the loops and orders and stuff. Then I'll come home and pass out.

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Someone got into the dumpster again yesterday while we were at work.

There is broken glass all over our driveway. Those bastards. I don't care if they take stuff, but for cryin' out loud clean up after your trashpickin' selves would ya?

They took the shutters we put in there. We were going to include them in the burnables but there were elevendy layers of what looked like suspiciously leady paint on them, so we pitched them. They took a ton of metal, aluminum and copper stuff -- which is fine by me because they cleared up a ton of room in there.

I didn't call my insurance company to ask about what happens if they get cut on some glass in there. I probably should. With my luck, I'm responsible for their stupidity.

Anyway -- it is now 8:15 and I need more coffee and I need to shower and get ready and go to the bank to buy our entire life's savings in the form of a cashiers check. Freakin' Out!

Home Inspection

We did our home inspection today and it went incredibly well. I love our home inspector, and if you ever ever need one, let me know. Of all the people I've met in this process, he's my hero. I learned a lot from him, not just home inspectory stuff, but history stuff, architecture stuff, how to tell what years certain things were done over the life of the house. He was incredibly awesome.

Today we're continuing to clean the basement and may be ready to tackle the walk-in closet. I started bringing boxes home from work. The reality of things is really starting to sink in. We're going to be moving in a few short weeks. Six weeks is not a long time. And I'm starting to panic.

Work this week went pretty well even if it was somewhat hectic. I enjoy being busy instead of sitting waiting, and I enjoy when, at the end of the week around 3pm I am doing stuff that doesn't necessarily HAVE to be done that minute. Next week should be a bit more manic as we try and iron out details for the next cycle of advertising and whatnot. And in my mind I know I need to focus really hard on that, and not worry about house stuff.

I can do that.

Not much else to report... I'd better get out there and help. Oh -- and yes, today is Tax Day, but we're not sending ours in until Tuesday because we're the lucky people in the State of Massachusetts who have a holiday on Monday (cough, hacks) and we get a minor reprieve. Yippee! Two more days my tax money sits in my account earning ME interest instead of the government.

If I don't get a chance to chat at you, Happy Easter.

Hair Gel

Humorous anecdote of the day. You will notice, it is 8:30am, so it starts early here and only gets funnier.

I took Geoff to the bus stop this morning and noticed flaky white stuff in his hair. Too young for dandruff, I figured he had shampooed last night and not done a good job rinsing. But then I noticed it was EVERYwhere.

Crud. What the heck. Worried mom reaction goes into overdrive.

I ran my hands through it and smelled him. His hair was stiff, like he'd used hair gel, which he does daily to spike up his Bart Simpsonesque doo. I licked my finger and my tongue instantly dried out, as if all the moisture in my body was drained away.

Uh oh.

"Dude, what did you put in your hair today?" I asked, continuing to sniff my hand knowingly.

"Something in the bathroom on the shelf marked Clear Gel," he responded. "It is dad's hair gel."

"Honey, that is deodorant in your hair. The Speed Stick Clear Gel deodorant Dad doesn't use hair gel. Dad doesn't have enough hair to justify ever trying. You put deodorant in your hair instead of your own hair gel," I was trying not to laugh my ass off.

"No way, I so did not!" he answered angrily.

Another mom came over and sniffed and said "Yup, Speed Stick. Same stuff my husband uses. At least he smells really good!" And both of us roughed his hair up as he leaned forward to release as much white, powdery crap out into the sky and onto the ground as possible.

"Dude, please stick to your OWN hair products in the future. Thanks," I said to him as he sulked towards the bus.

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Well, I oughta upload, dress and run. More later from my grumpy corner of the world.

there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Oh we are silly. Silly today. Very silly. Quote of the moment is courtesy of my daughter who brought it up and killed me. I like when she makes me laugh with her Peter Griffin Imitation.

So yeah, not much to report. Home inspection is this Friday. That'll be kinda awesome I hope. Jess' play was killer good. The Saturday night show had a lot of gaffes and mishaps, but the kids played through it like consumate professionals. Missed lines and Wardrobe Malfunctions and all, and they just dealt with it and because of how well they did, they got bigger cheers than you could have imagined.

I feel kind of let down that it is over, I can only imagine how the kids feel. Jess is relieved to be home in the afternoon. She has a rough draft of a huge paper due tomorrow, and didn't touch it over the last two weeks... so yesterday and today were her catch-up days.

Divas and House Deals

Is there a diva in my house? Dare I say, there is! And it would be in the form of my 13 year old daughter. The play "Little Mary Sunshine" is indeed insufferable as far as content in a play/musical goes.

But.

The performance these kids gave was astounding. They had a fully PG Wodehouse accented Indian Tribe, with Brown Bear sounding more like John Lennon than any sort of anything else.

Little Mary herself was nauseatingly perfect with huge gleaming smile and shiny happy people eyes. Her use of the hoop skirt will go down in history.

Our good friend Robbie did a smashing job as Captain Jim, and I love watching him perform. He is deadpan and funny and I can't believe how wonderfully he sings.

And Jess. Oh. My. Gord. Simply perfect, funny as all get out with her faux german accent and her cape and her kick ass dress. Oh the dress. Oh the dress itself was beyond compare!

Her solos and duets were spot on. She KILLED the Vienna song and owned the last note like it was her personal servant. Like it was her job to hit that note.

I know she's my kid. And even if she sucked I'd be all like "yeah, she did as well as she could."

But she was unsuck.

I knew she could sing. I know she is funny and can act and do improv and just do a really good job at not cracking herself up when performing. But this was better than I expected. It was especially cool to look over at Doug and Geoff and see both of their mouths hanging open.

It was worth every leaving early and stressful workday. It is worth every ounce of energy she put in. It is worth me feeling guilty for departing before my co-workers.

Just to see my husband's face and to know "damn. That's my girl!" is going through his head.

Normally, I find it a little difficult to go to a second performance, but I always do -- to support her and her friends. Let it be noted, I greatly look forward to seeing her do this again. Not just her, but all the kids in this cast.

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The other big piece of news you are all waiting for concerns our house.

We toured the property again this morning, talked about all the things wrong with it and formulated a plan for fixing (the windows have to be redone. the attic is un-insulated... the basement stairs are very rickety and scary...).

We figured out a price, and made our offer. Knowing he'd dropped the price drastically last week, our offer was way low, and we knew he'd come back with a counter.

We eventually found common ground, and he accepted and America, we are now the (tentative) proud owners of a 1774 Colonial.

I am cool enough for this house.

Now the paperwork phase begins. Pray for us. And I'm not kidding. I suck at paperwork. I suck at turning things in on time and getting all the right stuff organized. I need an administrative assistant to do that so I can do the important things in life, like write pithy self absorbed journal entries, take photos and be a blog terrorist.

Anyway -- I'm very tired. I just got back from picking Jess up at tonight's performance. She went to watch, do makeup and support in general. Tomorrow will be a long day. Sunday will be fun because Grandma and Grampa are coming up to see her perform. And that's awesome.

I'm going to bed. Good night!

There goes a raven and there go the ribbons

Monday morning we had our offer letter on 1774 house all printed out and ready to go, and our broker called as I was getting ready to walk it on out the door.

"Hold onto it for a few -- I just got word that there are four new houses going on the market this week, and two of them are what I think you are going to want to see, according to the listing broker."

Well, the listing broker still hasn't posted them. They aren't on the market, my broker can't get any further information out of her, and the 1774 house owner dropped his price by 20k this week.

America, you know I am not a hasty person. I've dragged my feet to be safe, I am late for everything. I have waited to see what happens next, and lost out on things that I wanted. I don't think I want to run the risk of losing out on this house.

We're going to look at the house again on Friday morning after Geoff gets his bus. And we're coming, offer in hand.

So until then, no further house updates, but you'll be the first to know, America. (I'm channeling my inner Bernie Mac if you haven't guessed).

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In other news, Jessie's play runs this week. There were so many kids they split up into two casts. One cast is having opening night tonight (in fact, they are hopefully 10 minutes into the performance).

They are doing the highly controversial play "Little Mary Sunshine," and I had no idea it was controversial in any way until I read some webpages on it while looking for info to link to here.

Apologies in advance to my one very cool and hot at the same time Native American reader (I believe, being Canadian, I can also refer to her as First Nations) Bree.

I am interested in seeing if they play it as it is intended -- a full on farce. Or if they interpret it differently and play it like a drama with no irony. It is SUPPOSED to be a musical that pokes fun at musicals -- really over the top and all kinds of wrong, with ridiculous performances (Patricia Heaton herself played the title role at one point) and ridiculous stereotypes to illustrate the ridiculousness of the entire thing. Very dark, very Monty Python, very all kinds of wrong and that's OK. I will review it tomorrow after I see it.

All I know is that these kids have worked their collective asses off... and I hope it all goes well and in the end they learn something good, whether it is about Native Americans, one another, theatre, or anything.

Now, I know that middle school and high school drama departments often put on plays that are cheap to come by, are easy for the kids, or, are sometimes eyebrow raising.

"The Vagina Monologues" has been done in high schools very recently in this area, and I have to be completely honest in saying that it is NOT appropriate material for 15 to 18 year olds. No. End of conversation.

I'm certainly not a PC person, but I'm not really sure how I feel about the content in Little Mary Sunshine, and whether or not I'd find it as offensive as something like someone talking about her pussy on stage...

The only prior info I had on the play was that Amy had told me that it is not a good play. She grimmaced when I told her the kids were doing it, and she said "not a good play."

I thought it was just a cheesy piece of crap in a not a good play kind of way.

I figured NOTHING could be worse than Starmites... which they did for their musical LAST year. Certainly, nothing ever will be worse than Starmites. Ever.

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Anyway -- Jess needed a dress for this thing.

She is Ernestine, the German Opera Star who stays at the lodge owned by Ms. Little Mary Sunshine. This is her first PRINCIPAL role in a play. And she was thrilled to hell to get it.

They gave her a dress that was about 5 sizes too small. She looked like a blonde sausage. It was burgundy, velvet, and clung to her like Glad Wrap.

I am very glad I was there the day they handed out costumes because I said "Oh, hell no." Theatre mom went into high gear that night.

"Jess," I said to her, "Do you LIKE that dress?"

"Um, no." she responded. "It is too small, and it is hot, and I hate it. And I look like an idiot."

Agreed.

So I had her mention something to the theatre director, who went out immediately and located another dress for her and put it aside at a little consignment shop over in Ipswich MA (why she didn't pay for it right then and there is beyond me). Meanwhile, I had contacted the Diva herself, Taunia, and asked if she had a dress that worked. She does, and we were going to pick it up on Monday night but I found out from Jess that night that her teacher had picked out a different dress so we wouldn't have to get Taunia's. (thanks for havin' a sista's back, Taunia, yo.)

Yesterday at 7 pm the theatre teacher tells me that she cannot go pick it up, so she needed me to go get it.

Holy freakin' Jebus.

I left work early today and made it there just in time. The little shop is called Bejeweled, and I swear to you America, it is the coolest little consignment shop in the universe.

They have clothing from the 20s onward, pillbox hats, mink stoles, opera gloves, more pillbox hats, purses! oh the purses! costume jewelry, shoes! Hell yeah America! I spent about 20 minutes looking through all the dresses before I realized I needed to get home to give a ride to one of the girls who is in tonight's cast.

The dress her teacher found is a 1940s black velvet dress with no back, a huge V cut in front (she's wearing a black cami under it because she has no boobs to fill it out) and it will fit her magnificently. Oh my goodness -- it has RHINESTONES all around the V of the neck and a matching little reticule covered in rhinestones to go with.

I died and went to stage mother heaven.

So the dress was 55 bucks, the reticule was 20, and the silver lamé gloves were 14 (I got those extra, because they ROCK, heh). And she is going to look the SHIT up there on stage. She's got a cape, and she's got someone doing up her hair, and man alive she's gonna KILL in that dress.

I can't wait to see her.

Because the cast is split up into 2, there are minor roles who are performing all shows. And the principals and the major players are playing off and on nights. Opening night is tonight, and Jess' friend Meg is Ernestine. Lindsay is Little Mary, and Robbie is someone else. Tomorrow night is Jess and Emma and Byron... and I can't wait to see them.

Because I'm a mental case, I almost went tonight. Instead I came home to write to you, America.

Jess will perform tomorrow night and we'll go. She's there tonight supporting... because she's just that way, and then she'll want to go again Friday. And I'll go with her then to see the alternate cast.

I love these kids. And I love that she's part of this.

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Anyway -- I'm going to go eat dinner, it should hopefully be ready by now. Have a good night y'all.

Friday we offered on the Pink House. We figured we'd give it a shot and let the builder know that we love this house but the lots are too small. That if he builds just one house, not two, we'd pay him MORE than his asking price. Can't tell not knowing, right? Throw it out there. Cast the line out and see what comes back.

At about 9pm we got the response. The guy was really appreciative of our offer but is locked into the plan with two houses. See, he rehabbed this first house and to make money off the deal he'd have to put up at least the one new piece of construction.

But, the town has a legal requirement to make X amount of homes in the town "affordable housing." So if the guy wants to build ONE house, he has to build a second house in the "40B" format. So it has to be two houses or none on the land.

So we can't buy a house that we love because of the government's "affordable housing plan." Nice. He may be stuck for a good long time with this house, is what I'm thinking. Because brokers and perspective buyers all are in agreement that the two house plan is no good.

Bastards.

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Yesterday evening Doug and I decided we'd offer on the 1774 house.

The broker on that listing has been calling our broker to ask how we're doing in our search.

I guess so far we're the most interested party she's had in. Her seller is very very motivated to be out of there, so we threw an offer out there and we'll see what comes back. We offered low, and I think he'll counter. And we'll play tennis again.

My last entry asked if I am cool enough to live in a house like that. Luckily I know people (leighish, my college roomie Bon just to name a few) who know their stuff when it comes to decorating without IKEA. I'll turn to them for guidance. We love this house, and after seeing it the other day we stood there agape staring at the rooms and really absorbing what life would be like there. I think I may be cool enough after all.

And the saying of third time's the charm really applies to our situation. Hopefully it will be said charm. I feel bad about the pink house, but I knew it wasn't going to work. His loss, our opportunity. So, stand by. I hope to have an answer today. Or at least a tennis match that is going on.

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Yesterday we continued cleaning out the garage and continued work on the basement. We need another dumpster. There is just so much stuff in the basement that it isn't even funny. We'd not need another dumpster if we could burn materials, but there is a brushfire warning right now and no open burning is allowed. So it has to go into the hopper.